Name: Keno
E-Mail: keno@fairpoint.net
Subject: Poll Post for the week starting Monday, Aug 8+
Date: Sunday, August 7, 2022
Time: 10:18:31 PM
Remote Address: 8.41.160.9
Message ID: 321263
Parent ID: 0
Thread ID: 321263

Poll Post for the week starting Monday, Aug 8+

It’s Poll Post time, which means it’s time to look at this week’s new Rock polls that we’ll be voting on this week (plus a special Mumbo Jumbo added in at the close), and I’ll start off as usual taking about the Stones poll, which enters week 1,201 of voting and week 92 of rating the Stones songs. This week for the second week in a row, we’ll rate a song from the Ronnie Wood era of the band, asking this question: Rate the Stones song “Rough Justice” , from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest).

“Rough Justice” From A Bigger Bang

So yes, another week looking at the Ron Wood era, with this one recorded in June of 2005 and released on the album A Bigger Bang on September 5, 2005. The music was written by Keith Richards, with the lyrics by Mick Jagger. Keith noted this one's music was just like how he wrote the riff to "Satisfaction". He was sleeping and woke up with a riff in his head and went straight to his guitar and started to play it right there so he won’t forget it, and just like that, the music to "Rough Justice" was born.

I and many other fans on first hearing this one loved it, as it was just so Stones sounding and one of their better modern-day songs. But yes, or should I say "no".... I'm not supposed to say that, as the way you rate this one shouldn't have any bearing on what I write here. Truth is, it clearly never does, as you voters know better and know how this rating thing works.

The lineup for this number was: Lead Vocals and Electric Guitar: Mick Jagger; Electric Rhythm Guitar and main Riff: Keith Richards; Electric Slide Guitar: Ron Wood; Drums: Charlie Watts, with the Bass Guitar played by Darryl Jones and Piano by Chuck Leavell..... To rate this week’s song, just click on the following link: Stones Weekly Poll.

Last week at the Stones poll we voted on and rated this: Rate the Stones song “Suck on the Jugular” , from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest).

“Suck on the Jugular”From Voodoo Lounge. Talk about a song that’s it hard to find an image for!

The Stones fans who vote each week here just can’t seem to rate too many modern-day Stones songs too high it seems, as once again, a modern-day Stones song saw a low rating for last week’s top vote, with that being a 7, taking in 19.6% of the votes. To see just how low in the Stones song rating standings this one landed, you can check that out here: Stones Song Ratings & Standings - List Page 5. Or to see the full, finial results from this poll itself, just click here: Stones Weekly Poll - week 1,200.

Okay, time to check out this week’s Classic Rock Poll, where we enter week 840 of polling, and where I’ll bring back an old poll series that we haven’t voted on in over a year, as we return to the what I call the "Underrated Polls", in which we vote for the most underrated band members from different bands. So for this week I ask you to answer this one: Who was the most underrated member of The Hollies (up till 1971)?.

The Hollies in 1966

More than likely we will spend the next 4 or 5 weeks answering this “underrated” question. As we get deeper into the bands featured each week, for some voters it does become a bit harder if one doesn't know a group well enough, to answer this one. That's one reason to ask it in the summer months I figure, when things are a bit on the slow side around here. Yet even with a bit fewer voters taking part, the results are always very interesting to see once the poll is over with.

For this week's band, The Hollies, founded in 1962 by Allan Clarke and Graham Nash, well this group is one of the few bands where pretty much every member could be looked at as being the most underrated (at least up until 1971, anyway). While The Hollies are still an active band today, no original members from back in '62, are still in the group today, while 2 of the current members have been in the band since 1963. Now again, for this poll we are only covering this group up until 1971, pretty much when their hits stopped being made (other than their last hit single was released in '75 when their original lead singer returned to the group). At the voting page where the poll choices are shown, I'll still list all of the years any one member was in the group (out of the 8 listed), including the years after 1971, but any members who joined the band after '71 aren't listed, since we're not covering the band after that time frame.

But do understand, by using the word "underrated", the question is looking at each musician as being underrated while in this band only. As is the case when we look at artists in a band, most fans don't think of the ones with the big names in the band as ever being underrated and don't consider them when answering a question like this. That usually always applies to most bands for their lead singer, or the band’s lead guitar player. Yet sometimes a big name in a band might have been underrated in earlier bands that they were in while not underrated years later, so keep that in mind. In this week's poll, as I noted, other than perhaps their original drummer, who only played on their first LP and left in the band's second year - and I bet most don't remember him, everybody else in this group you should know well enough.

So, let's look at the Hollies members listed this week. Their original members were Allan Clarke on Lead Vocals and Guitar, Graham Nash on Rhythm Guitar and Backing Vocals and whom sang lead once in a while, Don Rathbone on the Drums, and Eric Haydock, the Bass Guitar player. Their actual original lead guitar player was a guy named Vic Steele, but he only was in the band in 1962 and didn't appear on any albums, so I'm not including him in the poll. Tony Hicks took over for Steele in 1963 and has played on every album released by the band. Rathbone, the original drummer, as just noted, also left early, but he gets listed since he did drum on the first album, while drummer Bobby Elliott took over for him after the first album was made and along with Hicks is still in the band to this day.

One thing for sure, without their lead singer Clarke, they were nothing, as for all the years that he wasn't in the group, the band has had no hits, and he hasn't been in the group for many years now. So one could say he was underrated. Graham Nash of course went on to make it big time as a singer, but only after he left The Hollies. While in this band, he only sang lead occasionally, and while some felt that he may have been over rated in the next band he was in, that wasn't the case at all in this band, in fact, after the first 2 LPs, he seem to sing lead even less on the next few LPs. But still, he was well known in the Hollies, too, even if perhaps underrated.

One thing I've seen with this poll question in the past a lot, is that usually it's the bassist or the drummer who seems to get picked the most when asking this, since bass players and drummers are usually in the background for any band. In this band, their original bassist, the late Eric Haydock, was known as Rock's first and only regular 6 string Bass Guitar player. While he left in 1966 because he didn't get along with the band's management, he would have to be considered for sure for his different style of bass playing. Really, every one of these guys has an interesting story as to how their place in this group goes.

While the Hollies, named in honor of singer Buddy Holly, after starting out in '62, recorded their first LP late in the following year, so it wasn't released until January of 1964. But it was a big hit in the UK, where it went all the way to #2 on the UK charts, and was a minor hit in the States and Canada. Up until early 1965, their LPs sold very well in the UK and they had several hits there in their home country, including 8 Top 10 hits. Their first UK #1 was "I'm Alive" in early 1965, and it was a worldwide hit, other than in the States while it didn't do too well at all, only seeing #104 on the U.S. charts. But they really didn't make it big elsewhere, including in the U.S, until late '65 when the single "Bus Stop" was released and hit #5 both in the UK and America and went all the way to #1 in Canada.

The band would have several hits until they started to lose key members, including Graham Nash and Allan Clarke in the late '60s and early '70s, and other than one last hit, "The Air That I Breathe" in 1974, when Clarke returned for a while, they haven't had any hits since. Besides the 2 big hits noted above, their other 3 big hits were "Carrie Anne", "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother", but again, in the UK there were several more hit singles that didn't do as well elsewhere. So yeah, outside of the UK, they were all underrated. But you only get to pick one member, so which one will it be for your vote?..... To vote in this week’s poll, just click on the following link to do that: Classic Rock Poll .

Last week in the Rock poll this question was asked: What is the best Rock song about Sleep or Sleeping?.

Rock songs about Sleep or Sleeping

This poll had to be taken down and removed for the reason I’ll note down below at the close to this poll in a special Mumbo Jumbo.

So now it’s time to talk about the Beatles Poll, where week 591 of voting is here along with the 25th week of rating the Beatles’ songs. For this week we rate this song: Rate the Beatles song, “Can't Buy Me Love”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest).

“Can't Buy Me Love” One of the single’s front covers

This was one of those songs that was recorded real fast, in just 4 takes, with 3 of those 4 takes recorded on January 29, 1964. Yet on its first take, Paul McCartney, who wrote the song, sang his vocal part as if he was singing a blues song, with John Lennon and George Harrison singing the backing vocals, and with Paul thinking that was how the song would be worked out. But it wasn't, in part because the band wasn't given the chance to really work on it, as their record label was in a hurry to have more new songs released as fast as possible. In fact, because of a problem with the tape and a hissing sound heard over part of Ringo Starr's drumming, studio engineer Norman Smith had to play that part over for him, since Ringo wasn't available to re-record the part on the second day the song was worked on, and on the day that Paul was asked to re-record his lead vocal for what was now going to be a normal sounding Beatle rock song with no blues to it, and also with no backing vocals added in. So this song became the first Beatle single to only feature one Beatle on the vocals. Fans weren't told this and because Paul's vocal was double-tracked, most fans had no clue it was just Paul singing alone, especially when they sang the song live and both John Lennon and Paul sang the song together in harmony. John wasn't at all happy in how this vocal part was removed, with producer George Martin doing the mixing and changing the song around, and not allowing input by the band, or with allowing John to redo his part in the vocals. John, who at this time was the true leader of the band - and ahead of Paul in songs written and singing the lead on, felt threatened by Martin's move, and he took out his frustration using his pen, that is, he ended up writing the majority of songs for next LP, A Hard Day’s Night, without any input from Paul.

Once “Can't Buy Me Love” was released, the song was a major hit, going to #1 in almost every country it was released in, with just a few exceptions where it was still Top 10, other than in West Germany, where it didn't even make the Top 20. In the U.S., "Can't Buy Me Love" reached number 1, on April 4, 1964, and at that time, the Beatles held the entire top five spots on the official Hot 100 chart. No other act had held the top five spots simultaneously ever before - nor since. Plus, during its second week at number 1, the Beatles had fourteen different songs on the U.S. Hot 100 at the same time!

So, the studio lineup for this song was: Paul McCartney – Double-tracked Vocals, Bass Guitar; John Lennon – Acoustic Rhythm Guitar; George Harrison – Double-tracked Lead Guitar, Twelve-string Guitar; Ringo Starr - Drums - with Norman Smith on the Hi Hat thanks to the hiss on the tape noted above. Plus, while we of course are rating the studio version of this song, I linked to a live take at the voting page since it's cool to watch! On that take of the song, John does sing the co-lead along with Paul, as he always did when they sang this song live.

To vote in this week's Beatles poll and rate this song, just click on this link: Beatles Weekly Poll.

Last week at the Beatles poll we answered this question: Rate the Beatles cover song, “Michelle”, from zero (lowest) to 10 (highest).

“Michelle” The front cover German single release

Okay, so you already know that once again, and for the 25th week in a row, fans gave another Beatle song a top score of a 10, this time with 50% of the vote. To see the full, final results from this poll, just click on here: Beatles Weekly Poll – week 590. Plus, you can also check out the results and standings at The Beatles Song Ratings and Standings page.

So that does it for this week's Poll Post. But... maybe not so fast. As I decided to add a Mumbo Jumbo to its close, in part to explain what happened to last week’s Rock Poll, so here it is:

I've never officially wrote a Mumbo Jumbo as a part of the Poll Post, but one could argue that the close of the Poll Post was where it was born in the first place. After that it went on to be written in my town's local newspaper for a number of years, and after I stopped writing it there, it came here to the former Land of Gas (aka Gasland, and while a few still call this place that, it's been a few years since I have, as this is a Poll posting board only today, as Gasland did close down. But now besides being a poll posting board, once in a blue moon I write up a Mumbo Jumbo for here, too).

So, let me please explain what happened here last week with the Rock poll being taken down in mid-week, and in explaining that, I'll get into this mumbo jumbo talk, and write about something that I've told few about (outside of my family, that is) in the last couple of years that this stuff has been happening to me. I guess in a way my problem is becoming perhaps noticeable (as I got a couple of emails in on the poll problem last week before I took it down), so no need to totally cover it up any longer. The Rock poll last week, that asked you to pick the best song about sleep or sleeping, well, it had been already asked. Now, in the 23 years of running these polls, in the past I've done that maybe 2 or 3 times with questions that were asked a few years earlier, which is really not too big a deal, since it rarely ever happens and everybody makes mistakes once in a while. But what I did last week was a bit more concerning to me, since I hadn’t just ran that question a few years back and forgot to check our past polls to make sure I never asked the question before. That's something I do before putting together any new poll idea that I think up, and sometimes I do find that the question was asked years ago. Really, that's been a fool proof way of not repeating poll questions. But what I did last week was to repeat a poll question that I only had just ran 7 weeks earlier. How could I not recall that (?), or not realize that I never removed the poll from my future poll listing file that I keep, as I usually do after any one poll is run. So, the problem that is starting to get in my way - is my old age and nothing more, other than it's hitting me a bit harder than most old people have happen to them and perhaps you may have notice other such problems I’ve had with the polls in the last year, as this wasn’t the first time I’ve messed up in programing the polls or in trying to write up the Poll Post. If you're one of the early voters who shows up on Sunday nite, I bet you noticed problems here in the Poll Post before I cleaned it all up. For example, tonight's Poll Post was a total mess to clean after I posted it, with mistakes like missing links and photos which at first weren't showing, etc. On some nites it seems to take longer for me to clean up all the problems in the Poll Post than to write up the damn post!

It's normal for 40% of all people past the age of 65 to have these kind of problems, and the older you get, like after one reaches their 80s, then such problems become even more likely. But hey, that means 60% of those my age (and I'm only a few years past 65), should do fine memory wise for many years to come, and chances are many such folks will die from some other old age issue. But I'm not one of those, as I've been diagnosed with stage 2 memory loss, be it non dementia memory loss, but if one goes on to stage 3 memory loss, then that’s dementia. At first, I was told in late 2019, that it was indeed dementia that I had and which runs in my family. But early last year after further tests, it was found that while I do have stage 2 memory loss, no, it wasn't early dementia. But half the time stage 2 memory loss leads to dementia, so I got to be real careful (not that there's too much I can really do about it). But you might wonder what it's like to be told that you have a fatal disease, then told 4 months later - after more tests are done on you, that no, you don't have a fatal disease after all. But let me add something to this. Just two weeks after being told I didn't have dementia, I was diagnosed with having COPD, yet another fatal disease! I know a lot about this illness too, perhaps too much, since it's what killed my wife Sue a few years back, after hers turned into lung cancer. But Sue was a tobacco smoker, which is the main cause of COPD, and 90% of those who get it are tobacco smokers. But I never smoked tobacco, and never allowed Sue to smoke in the house or ever in front of me or our kids. But they told me it didn't matter, since the smoke was still on her cloths and that 10% of those who get COPD, usually are nonsmokers who live with smokers and are affected by their mates second hand smoking, even if they don't smoke in front of you (I still find that hard to believe).

So yes, for most of 2021 I had to live with being told I had two different fatal diseases. But late last year it turned out that no, once again I was misdiagnosed and I didn't have COPD and instead had asthma, something that is often misdiagnosed as COPD. So the question to me shouldn’t be, what's it like to be mistakenly diagnosed with a fatal disease, but what's it like to be misdiagnosed with 2 different fatal diseases just a few months apart? Well, for starters, it's no fun, I can tell ya that, plus it wasn’t any fun for my kids to be told this about me, either, as they already lost their mother to COPD.

But the good news is that for now, I'm kind of in the clear. I say kind of since I also been diagnosed with heart disease that I’m dealing with. Yep, my brain, heart and lungs are all failing me at the same time and I got to wonder just how much time I really got left. When you hit and then pass age 65, you think of that anyway, since most men are in their last 10 or so years of life anyway at my age. Yet I still don't worry about it, as death happens to everybody sooner or later. Hey, on the good side, being told a year plus ago that I had dementia finally got me to make out my will, something I should have done years earlier. Plus, it’s gotten my kids to be closer to me, as losing their mother/grandmother a few years ago isn't something they want me to be repeating anytime too soon. But crap, nobody lives forever, and while I'd like to be around another 20 years or so and see my 80s, right now it's not looking like that will happen at this point, as my breathing is getting worst each day, to where I might need to go on to having to use oxygen tanks to breath. That happen to the wife and I don't want to live like that, but I may not have any choice.

Since this Mumble Jumble is a part of the Poll Post, and getting back to them, the bottom line for our polls (and especially the Rock poll), is that my forgetfulness is where it's starting to get in the way of things, as it's getting harder for me to run and then build these polls anymore, week in and week out. I'm the one who has to come up with the questions each week, and since I started to have us just rate songs for the Beatles and Stones polls, well, that kind of polling is much easier for me to run. But the Rock poll, our most voted on poll, is another story. I got to come up with the questions and choices for them, and while that never was a problem in the past for me, it is becoming one now - and what happened last week at the Rock poll is proof of that. But I still have some old, good ideas written down in my future poll file, too, and as long as I can think up good choices for them, I'll try to keep the rock poll rolling, since I realized how popular around here these weekly polls are, especially how popular the rock poll is. As far as the other 2 weekly polls, as long as I can keep account of what songs have been rated so far and which ones hadn’t, I should be able to keep them 2 going. But when and if the time comes when it becomes too much of a chore to put the Rock poll together, that's when the poll will end. While I hate to say it, for the Rock poll, that could be happening soon. Hell, we used to vote in 5 new weekly polls a week here, then it was 4, and now it's down to just 3 a week. So, are the weekly polls' ending just around the corner? Maybe, but I hope not. Plus keno.org and all of its different websites will go on even after I exit this life, as my grandson Cooper will take it over. He's already getting a handle on the cam sites, and they do make the most money out of all of my sites on this domain. But while my boy likes music, he ain't into Classic Rock to the point where he would/could take over and run the rock polls. But he got his own new family now to look after, too, and knows he can make some extra cash in running the cam site. So I guess at the least the Cam site and Weather site will keep running after I'm gone and both will still be proactive, too, and while all of the Rock sites will still be up here on the domain, too, they no longer will be proactive. But hey, the Stones lyrics page doesn't have to be that way, especially with the Stones no longer recording any new songs to add to it.

But anyway, so goes life, and I already know that so many of you, if not most of you, are around the same age as I. We Boomers are who made rock music happen and were the generation that made it strong and watched it grow big. Rock music will never die, and those of us who were around when it was born and saw in through its early age in the '50s and '60s - and who didn't die before they got old, including the now old Pete Townshend who wrote that song lyric (and thank goodness his wish never happened!) are now all old, like it or not. Yet several, actually too many Rockers, didn't make it to old age, as we know.

As a non-believer in an afterlife, I'm not changing how I feel about any of that, since to me it’s all still nonsense and nothing more. I prefer what that one Zen like rock song by The Grass Roots noted, "live for today and don't worry 'bout tomorrow", and that’s how I always lived my life, not worrying about stuff I nor anybody else can control, and even if my days are numbered, well, that’s how life is for anybody who lives to be old. I do believe one simple thing on this, that we all, good people and the bad ones, too, will all end up in the same exact place once we are gone, and there isn't any reason to worry about it, as it happens to all of us sooner or later. I, and I know many of my old fellow classic rock fans who are reading this - were the lucky ones who made it into old age. Yes, lucky us!

So, that will do it for this Mumble Jumble and Poll Post. I hope all of you have a great week ahead, and yes, don’t worry ‘bout tomorrow!

Keno

• Poll Post for the week starting Monday, Aug 8+ by Keno on 8/7/2022 10:18:31 PM <-- You Are Here
• RE: Poll Post for the week starting Monday, Aug by manny in ny on 8/9/2022 9:50:55 PM

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